He added, "We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have
surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America."

In a
Yahoo News interview published Thursday, Trump did not
discount the idea when asked if his future national-security
measures could include a database of Muslim-Americans or a
special form of identification for them.

"We're going to have to — we're going to have to look at a lot of
things very closely," Trump said after Yahoo's Hunter Walker
asked him about the idea. "We're going to have to look at the
mosques. We're going to have to look very, very carefully."

Trump didn't back off the data idea, either, when an NBC reporter
asked him about
it on Thursday.

"There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases," Trump
responded, speaking between campaign stops in Iowa.

Additionally, a Trump campaign spokeswoman
reportedly said the candidate would not "take anything off
the table" when she was asked about the database.

Republican and Democratic presidential rivals criticized Trump
for the database idea. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) called it
"an outrageous and bigoted statement." Former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton called
it "shocking." Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said
it "strikes against all that we have believed in our nation's
history."

Trump's defenders, meanwhile, argued that reporters had forced
the controversy upon Trump. Conservative talk-radio host
Rush Limbaugh pointed out that Trump had simply shifted the
discussion to other subjects when he was asked about a potential
Muslim database.

"Trump has not suggested it," Limbaugh said on his show,
according to a transcript. "So the reporter's not asking a
question bouncing off anything Trump has said. It's just a
question thrown at Trump, and it comes to him in the midst of
autograph seekers and fans and supporters wanting to meet him
after his performance is finished."

Limbaugh added of Trump: "He has not confirmed a database. He has
not confirmed registration of Muslims. He's changed the
question."